“Fantastic to be a part of Uppsala University's history”

The title of your inaugural lecture is Career Rewind: Lång väg till arbete för högkvalificerade flyktingar i Sverige (Long route to work for highly skilled refugees in Sweden) – what are you going to talk about?

“There’s no good term in Swedish that is as catchy, but ‘Career Rewind’ means that you go backwards in your career, that there is a rewinding of your professional status. So I will talk about research results from a project funded by Forte that shows why it is so difficult and takes a very long time for highly skilled refugees to get a job that matches their skills,” replies van Riemsdijk, Professor and Head of the Department of Social and Economic Geography.

Is it unique to Sweden that this process takes a long time?

“No, it isn’t. But what makes Sweden so interesting is that the government has funded both bridge programmes and fast-track programmes. But what I show in my research is that unfortunately this is not a fast process, as there are many institutional barriers. The focus is often on getting refugees into jobs as quickly as possible, but it would be better to focus on the institutional barriers that exist and try to reduce them, rather than putting all the responsibility on the individual.”

You will be inaugurated as a professor on 15 November. What does that mean to you?

It is feels fantastic to be a part of Uppsala University's history. I saw that the first inauguration of professors was almost 400 years ago. To sit there in the Grand Auditorium and be part of that long line of professors... I don't know how to say it in Swedish, but in English I’d say ‘you feel the tradition’.

“I also think about the expression ‘it takes a village to raise an academic’, and it may sound cheesy, but it certainly is in this case. You think back to your mentors, colleagues and students who helped you along the way. Now that I'm a professor, I can also be a mentor myself and give back.”

You have worked at several different universities in the US. In what way would you say that American university culture differs from the one here in Sweden?

“Yes, why did I come to Uppsala University? Firstly, it was an interesting job. But it also had to do with work-life balance. In the US, I had many professional opportunities, but there was also huge pressure. In English we say ‘publish or perish’ and that was the reality I lived in. Now I work at a department where we don’t get emails in the evening.

“Another thing that I think is so good about Uppsala University is that teaching is valued here. This is not to say that teaching is not valued in the US, but at Uppsala University you can qualify as a distinguished university teacher, there are teaching awards and seminars on teaching.”

What would you say is worse about working at a Swedish university?

“That things take longer. At the beginning, when I was on the department board and we didn't make decisions right away, I thought: why should we talk about it again? Now I am a head of department myself, and having been in Sweden for seven years I also realise that it’s good. You can look at things from different angles, think about things and yes, that might need to take a bit longer.”

Sandra Gunnarsson